Italian Cinema Today

If you’re an aficionado of international cinema, then chances are you have seen the films of Marco Tullio Giordana. His work is not for the faint of heart. It is dramatic, in your face and often reflects the brutality of society and the prices one must pay to hold on to his or her values. Giordana’s most successful films outside Italy are One Hundred Steps (I cento passi) and The Best of Youth (La meglio gioventù). One Hundred Steps is the true story of Peppino Impastato, a Sicilian activist who spoke out against the mafia. He paid the ultimate price for his activism and to this day, is regarded as a beloved hero among Sicilians. The Best of Youth was originally a television mini-series but was so well-received, it was edited down to six hours for a theatrical release. Not many films could hold an audience for six hours, but I saw the film in a regular theater in upstate New York, not at a film festival, and people were laughing, crying and enjoying the emotional rollercoaste...

One of contemporary Italian cinema's most versatile actors, his characters have taken on organized crime, driven taxicabs, fought for civil rights and agonized over dark family secrets.  Born in Palermo in 1967, Luigi Lo Cascio attended the Silvio D'Amico Academy of Dramatic Arts in Rome, earning his diploma with a dissertation on "Hamlet".  He pursued a careering theater and gave little thought to working in film. That all changed when he accepted the role of Peppino Impastato, the courageous anti-mafia activist killed by Cosa Nostra in 1978. After a long series of screen tests to find the perfect actor to play the role, Luigi Maria Burruano, an actor already cast in the role of the protagonist's father, advised the director, Marco Tullio Giordana to test his nephew. Thoroughly impressed, Giordana offered Lo Cascio the part and it was a move that changed the course of his life.  His performance in "I Cento Passi"   (One Hundred Steps) was power...